Broccoli harvest and packing is preferably completed to the shipping carton in the field. In such harvest and packing, the individual flowers and stems are cut and laid on a tray. Thereafter, the groups of flowers and stems are gathered and banded at the stems into a bouquet. The banded bouquet is then carefully packed within a produce transport carton for shipping. The carton is thereafter removed from the field, refrigerated and shipped.
In the field, plants are typically cut by one worker and thereafter placed upon a sorting tray. A second worker removes the plants from the sorting tray, matches the flowers and stems into a bouquet, bands the stems as matched, and thereafter packs the bouquet to the transporting carton. Naturally, if a broccoli banding machine is to be used, it must cooperate with the second worker engaged in the bunching or bouquet process to ease the labor burden; in other words, it must ergogenically cooperate with the bunching and packing process.
An exemplary banding machine of the prior art is disclosed in Parry et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,241 issued Sep. 11, 1984 and entitled Apparatus for Bunching, Trimming and Banding Vegetables. This device includes a flat supporting plate forming a centering opening. Broccoli to be banded is gathered in a bouquet and placed within and supported by the centering opening.
Below the centering opening, a plurality of--and preferably four--pivotally mounted spring biased arms with upwardly extending fingers are disposed for movement within a plane parallel to but below the flat supporting plate. These arms move at their fingers into and out of a central juxtaposition of the fingers with respect to the centering opening. When the fingers of the arms are juxtaposed centrally of the centering opening, a rubber band is placed upon the fingers. When the fingers of the arms are moved away from their disposition centrally of the centering opening, the rubber band is stretched in an open stem receiving disposition. With the rubber band stretched in the open stem receiving disposition, the stem is inserted and the arms returned to their central disposition. In returning to the central disposition, the arms move inward until the arms and contracting rubber band contact the bunched stalks of the bouquet. The bouquet is then withdrawn upwardly, removing the rubber band from the fingers and leaving the rubber band attached to the stalks. The arms under their spring bias move inwardly, and a new rubber band is added, and the cycle repeated.
Ergogenic cooperation has not been fully realized by the prior art. Typically, the prior art has utilized pneumatic cylinders, has banding fingers that are at least partially covered or concealed, and requires banding to be initiated by a separate button or control. Each of these prior art requirements detracts from the efficiency of the packing process.
The use of pneumatic actuating cylinders is not without difficulty. Specifically, rates of movement are difficult to control precisely--and frequently are too fast. For example, many rubber bands expand within their elastic limit at rates that are both temperature dependent and rate of expansion dependent. Where these rates of expansion are exceeded, breaking of the rubber bands occurs. Where the temperatures are cold and the bands are rapidly expanded, the tendency of rubber bands to snap because of such rapid expansion is aggravated. It should be noted that this is more than a costly inconvenience; such bands snap with considerable force and can constitute a safety hazard, especially to the eyes of nearby workers.
Air is compressible--therefore excessive friction or other blockage in the linkage can cause momentary stoppage until air pressure increases and overcomes the friction. At this point, the compressed air can be "explosive" inside the cylinder, causing rapid and potentially dangerous movement.
As a further difficulty, in the machine just described, the supporting plate extends over the band expanding arms. With this arrangement, some arm movement is not only out of the line of sight of the worker conducting the banding operation but additionally access to the arms--especially when the arms are in the band expanding disposition--is restricted. Where a band slips from the finger of a retracted and expanding arm, the machine must be cycled.
Finally, for each movement of the arms desired--moving to the band stretching disposition or moving to the central band installing and receiving position--a button must be depressed by the operator. This is not trivial. Broccoli bouquets are typically large enough so that to be properly held, both hands must be used to gather the stalks from the sorting tray and move the gathered stalks to the banding machine. Since both hands must be used for such movement, and the bouquet cannot be properly supported by one hand, the prior art has relied on the supporting plate overlying the arms and the central supporting hole for temporary support of the bouquet while banding is initiated. Further, and when it is desired to expand a rubber band after a band is placed on the fingers of the arm, a second and independent actuation of the banding machine must be made. While this sounds trivial, it must be remembered that the worker bunching and banding the broccoli into a bouquet is also packing the bouquets to a carton. Further, since this packing step constitutes the last time the broccoli will be handled until it arrives at its shipping destination, it must be done with care. Simply stated, manual machine actuation is a costly interruption which reduces productivity.